Notices by Christine Hall (brideoflinux@mastodon.opencloud.lu)

I wonder how long it will take Trump, Musk, and Vance to figure out this unintended consequence: Microsoft unveils finalized EU Data Boundary as European doubt over US grows https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/03/microsoft_unveils_a_finalized_eu/

How convenient for the police, eh: You can now talk to Google Gemini from your iPhone's lock screen | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/you-can-now-talk-to-google-gemini-from-your-iphones-lock-screen/

"Friedman was a kind of court sorcerer to Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Augusto Pinochet, and other assorted authoritarian, hard-right leaders who set us on the path to the hellscape we inhabit today. But before Friedman rose to prominence and influence, he was a crank. Specifically, he was a crank who dedicated his life to rolling back all the progress of the New Deal and re-establishing the Gilded Age : Ideas Lying Around https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/friedmanite/#oil-crisis-two-point-oh

Even if it weren't for AI, it would still be dying because it's gotten to be so crappy: Is Google Search Dying? The AI Revolution That’s Changing How We Find Stuff https://medevel.com/is-google-search-dying-the-ai-revolution-thats-changing-how-we-find-stuff/

Mozilla's attempt to put lipstick on a pig: An update on our Terms of Use | The Mozilla Blog https://blog.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox/update-on-terms-of-use/

The internet is nothing like what I envisioned back in the day when I would imagine the time when we'd all be connected to some sort of network: 'Uber for guns' app Protector lets you hire armed body guards like you would an Uber — but does anyone need this? | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/01/uber-for-guns-app-protector-lets-you-hire-armed-body-guards-like-you-would-an-uber-but-does-anyone-need-this/

At this stage of the game, Gnome is just legitimizing Google which is legitimizing the thugs hanging out in the White House (if this offends you, you're invited to quit following me): GNOME is participating in Google Summer of Code 2025! – Felipe Borges https://feborg.es/gnome-is-participating-in-google-summer-of-code-2025/

"Waymo is logging more than 200,000 paid robotaxi rides every week, according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai": Waymo has doubled its weekly robotaxi rides in less than a year | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/27/waymo-has-doubled-its-weekly-robotaxi-rides-in-less-than-a-year/

Only “a few tens of millions of dollars” the article says: Anthropic's latest flagship AI might not have been incredibly costly to train | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/25/anthropics-latest-flagship-ai-might-not-have-been-incredibly-costly-to-train/

"The patch removing Hellwig as a maintainer was signed off by him and Linus Torvalds": How much does ChatGPT cost? Everything you need to know about OpenAI's pricing plans | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/25/how-much-does-chatgpt-cost-everything-you-need-to-know-about-openais-pricing-plans/

"Reviewers have not been entirely won over. In Bloomberg, John Ganz complained that “The Technological Republic” is “not a book at all, but a piece of corporate sales material": Palantir CEO’s new book says Silicon Valley has ‘lost its way’ | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/23/palantir-ceos-new-book-says-silicon-valley-has-lost-its-way/

Just published on FOSS Force: No, LibreOffice Doesn’t Turn 40 This Year, but StarOffice Would if It Were Still Around https://fossforce.com/2025/02/libreoffice-does-not-turn-40-this-year-but-its-deceased-grandmother-does

"I was listening to the always excellent Know Your Enemy podcast, where the hosts were interviewing Chris Hayes. The interview was fascinating and steered clear of moral panic about computers rotting our brains (shades of Socrates' possibly apocryphal statements that reading, rather than memorizing, was destroying young peoples' critical faculties)": Pluralistic is five (19 Feb 2025) – Pluralistic: Daily links from Cory Doctorow https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/19/gimme-five/#jeffty

"I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a fairly wild suggestion: if you spend years calling yourself a “free speech absolutist” while decrying “government censorship,” maybe one of your first moves after taking over the government shouldn’t be demanding prison sentences for journalists who report things you don’t like. But that’s just me": Musk Decries Hitler’s Censorship, Right Before Threatening To Jail Critics https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/18/musk-decries-hitlers-censorship-right-before-threatening-to-jail-critics/

"Large language models (LLMs) landed on Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda with a bang last week, as news emerged of a new program to develop a series of “truly” open source LLMs covering all European Union languages": Open source LLMs hit Europe's digital sovereignty roadmap | TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/16/open-source-llms-hit-europes-digital-sovereignty-roadmap/

Why you're not supposed to break your fall with the palm of your hand. This really makes writing difficult.

"Overworked, under pressure, and subjected to abuse – is it really worth it?": Open source maintainers are feeling the squeeze https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/16/open_source_maintainers_state_of_open/

"Getting involved with open source projects is a great way to build experience in development, documentation, internationalization, and more – but it's not as easy as it should be": Why are there so many graybeards in FOSS? https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/14/youngsters_in_foss/

"I’m going to keep pounding the drum for personal liability against Musk and DOGE, partly to scare them into backing off from their unlawful seizure of our government, and eventually to compensate us for the immense harm they’ve caused": No Personal Liability For DOGE Yet, But With Two More Lawsuits We Get Closer https://www.techdirt.com/2025/02/14/no-personal-liability-for-doge-yet-but-with-two-more-lawsuits-we-get-closer/

OK, let's set the record straight here. LibreOffice is nowhere near 40 years old. The code of the product it's based on was based on StarOffice, which would be 40 years old this year, but as a StarOffice user from the '90s I can tell you that LibreOffice is nothing like StarOffice, which shipped with a browser and email client: LibreOffice goes collaborative and Wasm as ZetaOffice https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/13/libreoffice_wasm_zetaoffice/